Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to electronic postage meters. More particularly, it relates to electronic postage meters of the type in which postage amounts may be set in response to an external signal.
Postage meters of the above type are known and are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,507; to: Soderberg et al.; for: Electronic Postage Meter having Plural Computing Systems; issued: Nov. 17, 1981, which is hereby incorporated by reference. The postage meter taught in the above referenced patent is particularly adapted for control by an external device. Such meters are useful in systems for weighing streams of mixed weight mail where mailpieces are fed to a postal scale, weighed and the appropriate postage amount determined, a postage meter set to correspond to the appropriate postage amount, and the mailpiece fed to the postage meter. Such a system is disclosed in the commonly assigned, co-pending application Ser. No. 909,153, filed Sept. 9, 1986, entitled Mailing System for Mixed Weight Mail; to Freeman et al.; filed on even date herewith.
Since, in general, the setting of the indicia printed by the postage meter in such a system may change with each mailpiece, it is clearly desirable to reduce the time required to change such settings in order to increase the thoughput through such systems. However, though postage meters such as those described in the above referenced patent are controlled by highly advanced electronics including microprocessors, the actual printing of indicia remains a mechanical operation. Such printers include complex electromechanical means for printing indicia whose reliability and accuracy is well established. The complexity of these printing and setting mechanisms is increased by an extensive system of interlocks to avoid printing indicia without accounting for the corresponding postage amount. Because of the complexity of these mechanisms, and the need to establish that any replacement mechanism is substantially as reliable and accurate, it is believed that any effort to develop a replacement mechanism will be lengthy, dificult, and expensive.
Thus, it is an object of the subject invention to provide a postage meter having a reduced setting time.
It is a further object of the subject invention to provide a postage meter suitable for use in systems for metering mixed weight mail.
It is a still further object of the subject invention to provide such a postage meter which will require minimal changes to the printing and setting mechanism.